“I feel so bad Alicia. Now that my contract ended, I have all of this free time on my hands and I don’t know what to do with it.”
That’s what a dear friend recently shared with me as we contemplated the ending of 2017.
I responded, “Oh you’re so lucky! Now you can learn some new skills and come up with new ideas without any interruptions!”
It’s natural to feel anxious, nervous and downright afraid during slow periods in business. However, these slow periods are perfect to reflect on your ups, your downs, your wins and your losses.
Reflection triggers inspiration. I often find stories about other entrepreneurs as great sources of inspiration, especially during “down time”.
In particular, I’m most interested in learning about other entrepreneurs’ respective journeys and the role that business infrastructure played in scaling their businesses, even if that scale happened with or without them.
So I’ve compiled a listing of 10 movies, documentaries and podcasts profiling different entrepreneurs:
- Bloomberg TV Game Changers – my favorite episodes include Magic Johnson, Ralph Lauren & Steve Ells
- Martha, Inc.: the Story Behind Martha Stewart
- The Men Who Built America
- Something Ventured: Risk, Reward and the Original Venture Capitalists
- Ray
- Genius on Hold
- Triumph of the Nerds
- Christian Louboutin: the World’s Most Luxurious Shoes
- The Kelloggs: The Battling Brothers of Battle Creek
- Founder
The presentation below includes this list along with direct links to each story that you can watch or listen to at your leisure. Be sure to bookmark this webpage and share with your social followers!
Though the historical accuracy of some of the stories is questionable, and while I’m not necessarily an advocate of what some of these entrepreneurs did in their journey to mega success, these stories nevertheless provide invaluable lessons in ingenuity, grit and tenacity.
In fact, after watching and listening to stories like these I usually come up with a new idea or a new way of doing something at Equilibria. In fact, in Something Ventured, the founder of PowerPoint said something that inspired the tagline I use for Equilibria – “Structure for Mega Success”.
Now it’s your turn.
Next Steps for You to Take After Watching These Stories
- Block at least two hours each day to unwind until the end of the year.
- Watch/Listen to the 10 stories listed above.
- Go outside. Take a walk. Get some fresh air. Bring a notepad with you.
- Jot down ideas based on your newly found inspiration.
- Brush up on Business Infrastructure to learn how to bring those ideas into fruition and how to protect those ideas.
Once you’ve completed these steps, follow up with me by requesting a complementary 30-minute phone consultation. I can tell you how to streamline the way you make your product (or deliver your service) and formalize it into a scalable system that repeatedly produces the desired results without getting you bogged down in the details.
Is there a movie about an entrepreneur that inspired you that’s not listed above? Please share with our community of ambitious entrepreneurs by leaving a comment below.
